Thicker Than Water
by the-little-guru
Summary: When Tarrlok was a young and brainless student at the University of Republic City, he went out to celebrate with his friends on the last day of finals. Many years later, it had more repercussions than he bargained for. Dark themes and coarse language.
1. Chapter 1

a/n: Okay, so I have an unhealthy obsession with Tarrlok, so I wrote a super crappy fic about something that is totally weir and I do not even know what I'm doing at this point so ya. Enjoy.

Oh yis, and only this tiny, pathetic plot belongs to me.

* * *

Tarrlok woke up slowly, savoring the last warm tendrils of sleep...until he became aware of a sensation akin to a herd of buffalo yaks trampling through his skull.

With a groan, he wrenched open his salt encrusted eyelids and laid perfectly still, staring incredulously at dirty, shadowy walls full of graffiti and suspicious stains. The entire room reeked of tobacco, alcohol, and some musty scent that he could not identify...

With another self pitying groan, he hastily wrenched himself out of bed, then immediately toppled over backwards as all the blood rushed out of his head, leaving behind weird, greenish spots in his blackened vision.

What happened?

For a moment, he just laid there, flat on his back against the cold, splintery wood floor, straining his aching brain for some memories of last night. What had he been doing last night?

_Okay, let's see...finals! Yes! I finished my finals...I went to a friend's dorm...we went out to celebrate...I ate fish...and had a weird greenish drink-_

And that's where the memories ended.

Tarrlok could not believe it! All his life, he had been overly cautious, and now he had to go and get roaring drunk while he was in school on a _SCHOLARSHIP_ no less! What the Koh had he done last night? Who had seen? What if he made a total fool of himself and lost his scholarship? Did he want noodles of steamed buns for breakfast?

Okay, he didn't really know where that last thought came from.

And he wouldn't ever know if he remained curled up on the floor, clutching his head.

Steeling himself, Tarrlok heaved himself onto his feet with all the grace of an arctic hippo. He paused a moment and leaned heavily against the wall before letting the room swim into focus before his eyes.

He appeared to be on the second floor of a very cheap, crappy inn, with cracked windows and a very interesting patterns of furry mold growing on the walls. There was no bathroom, no electricity, and probably no plumbing. Not really his kind of place at all.

Upon further investigation, he realized that he was also stark naked, with his clothes strewn all over the dusty floors.

_Oh. So I might've gotten laid._

That, of course, was always a good thing. Now if only he could remember enough of it to actually feel smug.

With a resigned sigh, he walked over and looked at the small bedside table, and found that there was a note there:

_Thanks for the night, but don't come looking for me again, nerd. Oh, by the way, I hope you don't mind if I borrowed some cash. Kisses-_

And there was a tacky smear of red which Tarrlok supposed was lipstick.

Angrily, he crumpled up the piece of paper and slammed his fist into the bed. _Nerd? NERD!?_ He was not a nerd! He was an sophisticated human being who was very good looking and happened to have more than enough social aptitude, _thank you very much._ And he also happened to mind very much if some one trashy lady decided to "borrow" his cash, especially if she (and hopefully not a 'he' because he tried it once which was ridiculously mortifying especially since he couldn't sit right for a week) didn't even bother to look at him the morning after! Although, the whole "_borrowing cash_" thing did give him a very ominous feeling...

With great apprehension, he walked over to investigate his pants, specifically the front pocket, and found..._nothing_. There was nothing in the place where he put his wallet, which contained pretty much his entire month's salary from a part time job at Narook's.

That was not fair! It was his first time drinking and he was taken advantage of by a girl in some sketchy bar!? He was pretty sure that this experience just put him off women for the rest of his days. How could he have been so stupid?

Tarrlok slapped himself in the forehead and immediately regretted it when it caused his skull to feel like it was fracturing from his hand's point of contact.

With great resignation, Tarrlok dressed himself and left the room full of dusty floors and moldy walls and stained bedsheets. He resolved to go back to his dorm, drink a few gallons of water, and scream at his friends for a while. It would serve them right for letting him canter off with a demonic tramp.

Sighing irritably, he slammed the door to the pathetic excuse of a closet. With a scowl on his face, Tarrlok strutted down the hall, ripping apart the crazy girl's note on the way.

* * *

a/n: Okay, I tried to make it funny, but probably just ended up making Tarrlok sound like a whiney prick. Whatever.

Review!


	2. Chapter 2

a/n: Warning: there are some dark themes and sometimes _very_ coarse language. And this is written from the POV of an OC.

Previously, Tarrlok got drunk and laid and some lady stole his money.

Oh yah, and nothing belongs to me except the pathetically sassy personality of an OC.

* * *

Thirteen years later...

_"Spirits, are you kidding me..."_ muttered a voice in the west side of the Dragon Flats borough, Republic City. It belonged to a terrified thirteen year old girl named Keika, a small waterbender with braided hair who'd just gotten home from work to find her mother strewn across the floor of their one room flat, all of their possessions stolen. Upon further inspection, she'd noticed that many cracks and odd shapes jutted out from the cement floors. Most of the stark white tiles on the walls had fallen off and were scattered across the room; some even had traces of red where it probably hit her mother.

_The Terras…_

She wrung her hands in anger and fright. This had not been the first time there two of them were attacked by a triad; since they lived in Dragon Flats, they were extremely susceptible to being casualties of turf wars. Every Triad wanted this part of town, where there were the greatest amounts of helpless non-benders to pick on.

But not her. Keika was a waterbender, and she would be able to help her mother. If only she could stop hyperventilating for long enough to take her mother to a healer.

Swallowing her rising hysteria, she peeked out the window, sighing with relief when she noticed the streets were empty. It was safe to go out.

She sloppily bent a blob of water out of a barrel in the corner of the room, before freezing it into a coarse stretcher made of ice. She layered blankets on top before gingerly rolling her mother onto it, breath catching in her throat at how tiny and light her mom seemed.

The two of them had not been getting enough food recently. Between paying rent for their house and "protection fees" to the Triads in the area, they've hardly had any money to buy food.

But currently, sickening panic was making her to nauseated to think about hunger. Instead, she hastily lifted the ice stretcher with her mother in it, trying not to let it tremble. She hurried down five flights of stairs, thankfully without meeting anyone. She steered it out of the tiny door at the base of the building before rushing down the street, attempting the best she could to stay in the shadows.

There was a mediocre healer a few blocks down the street, the only one in their area. He was often temperamental and prone to drunkenness and overcharging, but it was the only choice she had, unless she wanted to go to uptown Republic City….where all the rich snobs belonged.

She harrumphed to herself as she bustled down the street. She would rather sell all of her teeth to organ trafficking than have to play the part of a poor, underprivileged little street rat for those overprivileged bastards to pity.

Finally, she arrived at the healers and tried to open the door. It was locked. She banged against it crossly for half a minute before taking a peek inside through the dusty window. All the lights were still on, and it was only 6:40 pm, still twenty minutes until official closing time!

_If this crappy jerk is drinking now of all times…_

Suddenly, the sliding door was slammed open. The healer peeked out, glaring at her with sharp, haggard eyes.

_Okay, so he's probably sober._

Without further ado, she made to lift her mother inside. But before she could even bother to say _"help,"_ the door was slammed in her face.

"HEY!" she yelled, losing her temper, "WHAT THE F_Fff_...-"

Wait._ No_. She managed to check her mouth just in time. That language was _quite_ unbecoming of a little girl, and it wouldn't do to insult the only person who could help her mother.

"_Sir_, can you _please _heal my mother?" she asked through gritted teeth, into a crack in the wooden door.

"_No. Leave, Keika._" stated a muffled voice inside.

"_WHY?_" she snapped hysterically, "I have money! You can have all of my ten yuans today! And I'll pay the rest later!"

"The injury is Triad related. I refuse to be associated with them any more than I already am." said the healer inside in a cold voice, "Now get away from my shop."

"You suck!" she shouted, kicking the door with tears of rage in the corners of her eyes. She broke a chunk of ice off the ice stretching and slashed the characters 混蛋 across the cracked door.

"_Well, well, well, _what do we have here?" said an oily voice behind her.

Her hairs on the back of her neck raised up with dread. Slowly, she turned around and was met with the site of three earthbenders, all of them looking very tall and buff and intimidating.

One of them was shirtless, and across the center of his chest, there was a tattoo of the earth kingdom insignia, a circle with a square in the middle, but it was cracked in half. It was the symbol of the Terra Triad. The man in the front was grinning at her in a very disconcerting way, a tossing a giant chunk of rock between his hands languidly.

With cold terror, her eyes darted back and forth, trying to find a way out of this fiasco. She surreptitiously scooted in front of her mother, hoping they wouldn't do more damage to her than they probably already have.

They glared at each other for another tense moment, then the ringleader snapped his hands forwards and hurled a rock at her head.

Reacting quickly, she melted the ice stretcher and flung the water forwards, simultaneously stepping to the left. The rock slammed into the water, but Keaka allowed the rock's momentum to carry the water backwards like a sling, spinning her around. She let it loose on the other side, allowing it to slam back towards the triads.

The scary man in front thrust his fist out, causing the rock to explode into little pieces.

"Lookit this, guys." he said nastily, "It looks like we got ourselves a little waterbender."

"Freckly and big eyes too. Looks like a halfie." says a second earthbender with unnerving enthusiasm.

"Yes...water halfies are a lot less common around here, aren't they?" said the first guy, looking at her speculatively.

_Oh crap...I do not like the direction of this conversation…_

"Uh, listen, my mom's kinda injured-"

"Yeah, she wouldn't pay her taxes." said the guy.

"I have money." said Keika in a strained voice, trying not to let any anger leak through as she pulled out her work salary.

"Ten yuans?" tisked the earthbender, "I'm afraid that won't be nearly enough. But there are other ways of paying..."

Keika took all of the water and formed a small spiky ice shield around herself and her mother. Not that is would do much it they decided to drop a giant boulder on her, but still…

Suddenly, the shrill voice of a boy cried out, "The Monsoons are coming this way!"

The three earthbenders whipped around, giving Keika a chance to escape. But then she would have to leave her mom, who would never get treated then! So she turned to observe the boy as well.

He looked to be a little older than her, short and pale with thick eyebrows, a snub nose, and very wide green eyes. He was wearing an oversized grey tunic with ratty green trim, and large shoes that flopped at the toes.

"_For the love of fucking badgemoles._" snarled the leader of the group of earthbenders, "I forgot it's the fucking full moon tonight."

Then, he wheeled around and glared down at the little boy shrewdly.

"Who the fuck are you? I haven't seen you around before." he said suspiciously.

"I...I'm kinda new." stammered the other boy, "I'm only running errands right now-"

"Stop your stuttering, you little urchin." he snapped before turning to his men, "Grab the girl. She'll be worth something."

"_WAIT!_" cried the other boy, "What if she's one of them? Won't they be angry?"

"Ha! She's not a triad member." laughed the earthbender, trapping her limbs in stone walls, "She wouldn't be this mediocre of a waterbender if she were a Monsoon."

Keika could only glare helplessly as she was lifted to the back of a satomobile, entrapped by a stone box.

The earthbender boy ran up and said hastily, "Hang on a sec-"

"WHAT!?" spat the older man, "Are you trying to slow us down? Are you one of us or not?"

"_No...he's not._" said a coarse voice from a dark alley behind them.

Keika looked over the shoulder of older earthbender, trying to connect the voice to a face. Although the person's face was shrouded in shadow, she could still hear a smirk through the self assured tone of his voice. He emerged from the alleyway, clad in a flamboyant maroon tunic with fine silk trim. It was flashy and trashy and seemed to be stitched together with illegally earned yuans. Above was a dirty, sly, pockmarked face, with greying sideburns and arched eyebrows framing his shrewd yellow eyes and wide, arrogant smirk.

"Well done." he said, striding past young earthbender boy.

"Thanks...Boss." replied the boy, staring at the scene with wide, worried green eyes.

Immediately, the three earthbenders, the ones who'd been threatening her, leapt into formation. Upon further inspection, Keika was able to make out other shadowy shapes approaching from all sides. She looked back worriedly at her mother, who was still lying in front of the healer's door. It looked like this would turn into a turf war, and she didn't want her mother to get caught up in it.

_If she's still ali-_

NO! She can't allow herself to think that!

"_Psst!_ Can you move my mom?" she whispered frantically at the earthbending boy.

He whipped around and stared at her in alarm, hesitantly scooting closer to her mother's still form.

"_Hurry!_" she hissed.

He sloppily shifted the sidewalk tile her mom was lying on, causing her to skid down an abandoned alleyway. But the small commotion drew the attention of the older benders.

One of the Terra men mistook it as a threat, and hurled a boulder into the wall next to the young earthbender's head.

And then pandemonium broke out.

"YOU! TAKE THE VAN AND LEAVE!" bellowed one of the Terras, barely dodging a blast of fire.

The sounds of exploding elements and the smell of singeing filled the air. Then, the satomobile underneath her rumbled to life.

"_HELP!_" shouted Keika, panicking as the door to the back of the van started to close, about to cut her off from her life forever.

Suddenly, the stone walls surrounding her crumbled. Immediately, she sprang up and tried to leap out the doors, but they slammed shut, causing her to crash into the back of the van with an unceremonious _thud!_

She grimaced with embarrassment when she heard the sound of muffled laughing from outside. A moment later, the front doors opened as two of the three Terras rushed into the van. One of them cursed as a large boulder slammed into the side of the van, shattering a window. He hastily fumbled with the keys until he could start the ignition, then slammed his foot on the gas.

And they were off.

_Crap. Damn all the spirits above._

Keika didn't know exactly what happened to little girls who were stolen away, but she had a pretty fair idea that it was definitely not something she wanted for herself. She had to get away, but how? The back of the van was separated from the front by a metal cage, and there was no way for her to cut through it without detection...

Then, she noticed that there was a bottle of water in the cupholder in the front of the van. Her eyes darted from the sloshing liquid to the two men's faces to the set of keys jangling in the ignition switch. Maybe it contained a key to unlock the cage. She took a deep breath and lifted her hands up. What she was about to do would make feel awful about herself, even if it was towards heartless bastards who didn't care if she would be morbidly depressed for the rest of her life.

When she pinched her fingers together, the water began seeping out of the bottle slowly and silently, until there was enough for her to shape into a pair of icicles. Carefully, she raised the icicles to the side of the Terra members' necks, being careful to keep out of their peripheral vision. Then she pricked the needle sharp icicles into their throats, just lightly enough for blood to bead onto the icicles, staining the tips the color of fruity pink wine.

Simultaneously, the two men sucked in a sharp inhale, stiffening where they sat.

"Unlock this cage." said Keika in what she hoped was a confident voice.

One of the men gave a short bark of laughter.

"You wouldn't really do it, little girl." he said, though he eyed the icicle warily all the same.

In response, she pushed it in a little deeper, until he gave a nearly imperceptible hiss of pain as the cold tip drew a thin trickle of blood. Keika took a deep breath and willed herself not to lose her nerve.

_Huh, threatening people with death is nearly not as fun as I thought it would be._

The driver of the van slowly brought the van to a stop on the side of the road and yanked the keys out of the ignition switch. The icicle was still pressed against his throat as he slowly clambered over to unlock the cage. Keika kept the frozen water on their necks while she backed out to the front and opened the door.

The two men were glaring at her with hate in their eyes, which was perfectly fine because she hated them too. In fact, she hated all of the Terras. Because of them, her mother was injured and she was almost sold into their stupid trafficking business. They deserved to die for that! But still, she couldn't bring herself to kill them. She sighed resignedly.

Sometimes, it was awfully inconvenient to have a conscience.

So instead, she let the icicle melt into a collar and froze their necks to the wall of the van. Except, now that the sharp pointy objects were removed from their necks, they tried to earthbend. Keika dodged a rock pole that stuck out of the ground besides her.

She was able to sprint away for maybe thirty seconds before she heard a telltale rumble of an engine.

_Crap! How am I going to outrun a satomobile?_

Hastily, she looked around and saw a fire hydrant nearby. She couldn't see the water, but she could sort of feel it. Only she didn't know how to unscrew the cap. She turned around and saw the van approaching _way too fast_.

Oh fuck it.

She panickedly threw her hands in the air, and water blasted out of the street like a small geyser. The detached hydrant flew sixty feet in the air, curving in a wide arc before landing a little distance away with a metallic _crunch!_ Water rained down on her like a torrential downpour, and she directed water from the hydrant towards the rapidly approaching van. It started to steam, but was not stopping! Hastily, she froze a layer of water over the street, and using the water from the current, she blasted herself off onto it, her sandals skidding around dangerously on the lumpy sheet of ice as the shot forwards and fifty miles an hour.

_Is this what it feels like to go skating?_

She'd never been able to go to one of the figure skating rinks since they were too poor, but it always looked like fun and her mother always wanted to try, even though she had no coordination and was an irresponsible jerk who never gave Keika anything and Keika swore to herself that someday she'd make enough money so that she could finally stop depending on her crappy excuse for a mom and do something fun for herself that normal people could afford and _WHOA!_

She was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she didn't notice the giant rock that materialized right in front of her face. She swerved to the side in panic, and promptly toppled over, still sliding forwards ridiculously fast. The grainy ice dug into her bare arms and left miniscule streaks of red behind her as she tried to slow herself down. Abruptly, the ice ended and she tumbled onto the pavement, rolling over and over into the street. She curled into a ball of pain and allowed herself one and a half seconds of gasping in self pity before springing back onto her feet. But to her surprise, the van was speeding away.

_Hah! Too scared to take me on again!_

Smugly, she turned around, to go back to her mother, but to her surprise, the street was blocked by a bunch of people from another gang.

_Oh. So That's what scared them away._

She huffed. She should've known better than to think a triad member would be scared of _her_.

Then, she noticed that a older teenager of water tribe origins was looking at her very appraisingly. He was dressed in blue, with his hair slicked back in a pompadour, a deep furrow on his brow, and the most pathetic, thin, straggly excuse of a sideburn and goatee she'd ever seen.

"How old are ya, kid?" he asked with a wide, slimy grin and an arrogant street lilt, "You ever got taught in waterbendin'?"

"Uh, no. I'm thirteen." said Keika, twiddling her fingers awkwardly, "I don't want any trouble, please. I just need to find a healer for my mom-"

"We'll take care o' that. We'll get'er patched up, if you listen to my little..._proposition_." he said, the corners of his mouth curling into a even wider smirk, "You come wid' us and maybe pay us a visit every few days, run numbers, git supplies...and we'll heal your ma and teach you some waterbending. Y'know, nothin' crooked."

Keika eyed them suspiciously. She recognized this as an attempt to lure her into something.

"What if I refuse?" she challenged, puffing out her chest in a failed attempt at confidence.

"Haha! Would'ya look at that!" laughed the water tribe teen to his buddies, "She's got nerve."

He strutted forwards and sneered down at her, so close that she could smell irritating, cheap cologne. She shrank away a little.

"I think y'know what happens to people who refuse the Triple Threats. Besides, you might git some paper outta it, and I gotta feeling you need some pretty bad." he said with narrowed eyes, pulling out a bundle of cash from the inside of his coat, "You got no other option. Yo old ma ain't gonna last much longer back there. So...you game?"

She sighed, realizing that they backed her into a corner, both figuratively and metaphorically. She looked up with nervous, narrowed eyes and crossed her arms.

"_Fine_." she mumbled.

Whatever they wanted, they would have whether she agreed or not. That was how it always worked in the slums. It was impossible for the weak to live without being pushed around by the Triads, one way or another.

The teen gave her another unnerving, cheshire like grin and stuck out a hand, adorned with jade rings with a gold watch, for her to shake. She took it.

"Nice to be acquainted," he said, giving her hand an aggressive squeeze that said otherwise, "Shin's the name. Shady Shin. And you?"

"Keika." she said, realizing a moment too late that she probably shouldn't have given up her real name.

"Pleasure." he smirked, leading her back up the street.

* * *

After a ten minute car ride that was _WAYYYY_ above the speed limit, they arrived at a shoddy little restaurant a few blocks away from the central station. Keika hopped out as soon as she could, feeling very uncomfortable being surrounded by a bunch of large waterbending street thugs. She looked over warily as two of them carried her mother into the restaurant in a stretcher. Her mother was so still and pale, her face very plain and worn without the makeup that usually coated it. But nonetheless, Keika felt immense relief as they approached the creepy headquarters. Hopefully, they'll heal her mom.

They went into the restaurant, and then through a beaten up door that said "_employees only_" and then into a cellar. There was a trap door underneath that, and many tunnels leading in all directions. But for now, they just stayed in the main room of the cellar.

Shady Shin bellowed "_NILAK!_" down on of the tunnels, and a few moments later, an older water tribe man with graying hair rushed out, carrying a tub of water. He looked a lot less sketchy than Shin.

"What's the problem? Who is this woman?" asked Nilak, bending out a blob of glowing water to start healing, "Did one of our whores get injured again?"

"MY MOM IS NOT A PROSTITUTE!" snapped Keika before she could stop herself.

Immediately, all eyes turned to her. She shrank away a little self consciously.

"Oh, honey..." tisked Shin nastily, "You really gonna believe that?"

"_She's not though..._" repeated Keika a little more hesitantly. But her brain decided to unhelpfully bring up image after image of how her mom used to come home looking stoned and a little worse for wear. Whenever Keika asked about it though, her mom would just say, _"Oh, I just got in a little street fight. You know those triads..."_ When Keika tried to ask more, her mom responded by falling into a stupor, leaving Keika to run what errands they could afford.

Keika would always give her mother the cold shoulder in the following days, but refrained from criticizing because she thought her mom was being brave, so it was alright that her she was a bit negligent. It was okay that her mom never said "I love you" or told her about her dad. It was alright that her mom sometimes forgot to come home at night, because she was protecting their little family of two. Or that she brought friends over. Or that those friends had sleepovers and Keika sometimes had to go outside. Or-

_Okay, bad train of thought._

Keika decided to steer her mind away from such matters and concentrate on the present. She had to make sure her mom was okay.

Curiously, she observed the brightly glowing blue water, travelling across her stomach.

Then, she noted with displeasure that the rest of the triad members were watching as well, with a little too much interest.

"What are you looking at?" she snapped recklessly.

The triad members looked at each other in amusement. Everyone except Nilak, the healer.

"Grow up, boys." he sighed with a resigned scowl on his face.

Keika noted that this only caused them to smirk even more.

"Can you teach me to heal?" she asked loudly, since she felt very ill at ease and _really _wanted something to occupy her hands.

"No."

"Why?"

"I'm concentrating." grumbled the healer. He looked like he was barely even trying.

Keika was starting to get alarmed now. If her mom really was knocked out, shouldn't he be trying at least a little harder?

"Is she going to be okay?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"No." replied Nilak bluntly.

Keika felt her eyes start to burn, and panic rising up her gut again.

"_Man_, you coulda been a little nicer 'bout that." said Shady Shin, albeit insincerely, "You know what the problem wid' her is?"

"Poppy overdose, mainly. Wouldn't be too bad, except she also got a concussion that's been untreated for too long." said the healer tonelessly as he dropped his hands, "She's not living to see the morning. Healing is futile."

"But you have to keep trying!" insisted Keika, "It might work! It will!"

"Kid, she's been dead for hours." said the healer.

"_WHAT!_ NO! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" shrieked Keika. She gripped her mother's shoulders and shook, and then pressed on her chest a few times before lowering her ear down, frantically searching for a heartbeat. Maybe she was still alive. Maybe...Maybe...Maybe...

_And..._nope. Nothing at all.

At that moment she was forced to accept the cold hard truth: Her mother was gone. Now she was on her own. Now, she had to be strong, and mature...so she obviously reacted to this situation in the most mature way possible...

By throwing a temper tantrum.

"_THIS IS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT!_" she bellowed, hurling a sheet of water at Shin. He scooted to the side just in time for a single hair to be clipped, but the wall in the back was not so lucky. A chunk about six inches wide and seven feet long was gouged into the concrete. Shady Shin glared at her incredulously, his left eye developing a dangerous looking tick.

"Now see here-" he began.

"_YOU SHOULDN'TVE WAITED SO LONG! YOU COULD'VE SAVED HER! YOU ALL SUCK! I HOPE YOU DIE!_" she shrieked.

Then, she proceeded to stomp around and punch the walls and spew out every swear word she ever heard from her time playing in the streets. She raged and screamed and cried and impaled the floor with ice daggers and seemed to build more and more momentum with every terrible thing that unintentionally tumbled out of her mouth.

Shin stepped back into his group of buddies, and they all looked at her with eyes widened with shock, but let her rave until she burned herself out and collapsed on her knees, surrounded by water and icicles and cracks on the floor.

Then, the entire cellar was awkwardly silent for a solid minute, broken only be the sound of dripping water.

Finally, Nilak the healer broke the silence with a tentative, "Kid, I think it's time for you to go home."

Keika continued to stare dejectedly at the floor.

"Our rent was already seven weeks overdue." she mumbled, "And the landlord will kick me out now that mom's gone."

Shin and his waterbending buddies glanced at each other.

"You askin' to stay?" asked Shin incredulously, "You realize what you're offering yourself up for, yeah?"

"Well, I might have to break the law, or steal, or get tattoos which might be painful, but that's okay." she said quickly.

"_Hahah_. You thought you'd be joinin' us?" laughed Shin, looking at her appraisingly, "So naive. Too bad girls ain't allowed to be Triple Threats."

"What? Why?" asked Keika. She was genuinely confused. Some of the strongest benders in history had been women! If Kyoshi wanted to join the Triads, they would've let her join!

Shady Shin glanced back at his buddies again. "Girls just ain't cold hearted bastards." he said, starting to get irritable.

"I can be a cold hearted bastard!" said Keika indignantly, much to Shin's surprise, "What do I need to do to prove myself?"

"You can blow me, little girl." smirked one of Shin's cronies.

Keika glared at him for five solid seconds...before viciously firing an icicle into his thigh

She watched self righteously as he shouted out and hopped around clutching his leg, which was starting to gush blood.

"_You crazy bitch!_" he bellowed as Nilak the healer melted the icicle embedded in his thigh and started healing it with a sigh of exasperation.

"Fucking spirits," muttered Nilak, "If you boys do recruit her, she'll fit right in with the rest of you violent hooligans_._"

Shin looked at her with a very contemplative face again, and this time, she glowered back at him challengingly.

"Fine. _Join_. You kin come to the waterbendin' classes for newbs and do shit wid' us, but don't expect anyone to be watchin' your back." barked Shady Shin, "You ain't ever gonna be one of us."

"I don't care." she snapped before mellowing down and asking, "So, are you ever going to try and steal Dragon Flats away from the Terras?"

Shin smirked down at her, "Somebody wants revenge, eh?"

She scowled and decided to change the topic, "So where should I stay?"

"Wherever you want, kid." smirked Shin, "Although I suggest somewhere far from my friends here."

Keika looked at the angry, leering faces, and she slowly backed away towards the doorway out of the cellar.

"Git back bright and early tomorrow, Princess." said Shin, leaning against the wall. "We might be able to fix you a job."

Keika nodded nervously one more time before dashing out the door, filled to the brim with numb disbelief. Somehow, she found it incredibly difficult to believe that her mother just died, and she was almost kidnapped, and then she joined a Triad. Somehow, it wasn't registering in her head.

_Well, that's a good thing. It's better than having another humiliating panic attack._

She warily crept down the darkening streets near Central Station, looking for an alleyway that didn't already seem occupied. Suddenly, she heard the voice of a young boy coming from a nearby alleyway...

"-and then they just took her away! They just earthbent her into a van and took off! Can you believe that, Mako? She was even younger than me! What do you think they'll do to her? I hope she's alright! _Ohhhhh_ man, and her mom was injured too! I wanted to help her really badly, But Shady Shin told me to stand back so I don't get beaten up-"

"He was probably right, Bo." interrupted another slightly grumpier male voice, "Now let me sleep. I have to work early tomorrow."

Keika's interest was piqued. She shuffled silently to the dumpster where she heard the voices coming from. Could that've been the young earthbender that she saw earlier?

"...but seriously, Mako, do you think she'll be okay? I mean, she's just a little girl and she probably couldn't defend herself."

The dubbed "little girl" huffed out silently in indignation and shuffled closer to listen to this "Bo" person's rambling, but accidentally tripped over a metal can in the process.

She winced as it skidded across the pavement in a series of _clacks!_ so obscenely loud that she could barely believe a single beaten up tin can was making them.

Suddenly, a flickering light emerged from the depths of the alleyway, and the grumpier voice growled out, _"Who's there?"_

Keika cautiously peered into the alleyway. To her relief, it was just a pair of young teenagers, like her, who were scrawny, and dirty, and clad in torn, threadbare clothing. The one in front was a firebender, and the one hiding behind him was short and squat, and had ridiculously thick eyebrows, and ridiculously large eyes...

"Hey, my name's Bolin and this is Mako." he said, scrambling out from behind the older boy, "And I know you!"

"Yeah." said Keika shortly.

"Who is she?" asked the firebender, regarding her suspiciously.

"The girl I was just telling you about!" replied the earthbender, before looking at her with wide eyes, "How did you escape?" he asked.

"I went ice skating." she said, conveniently excluding the part where she almost stabbed the two Terras to death.

"Really? You saved yourself with ice skating?" asked Bolin excitedly, "Just like that Commander Bumi guy! Remember reading about him in the paper, Mako? He singlehandedly saved his entire battalion with a piece of string and a tsungi horn and some other th-"

Mako cut Bolin off with a very haggard glance.

"Bolin. I think your brother's tired." said Keika, with a glance at the older boy.

"Oh yeah! Right...sleep." said Bolin, as if he'd forgotten. Then he turned to her with a concerned face, "Do you know how to get home?"

"I'm not stupid!" snapped Keika defensively, then immediately felt guilt when she saw Bolin's hurt face, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'm actually just looking for an empty alleyway."

"Oh! So you don't have a home either?" said Bolin sympathetically, "You can stay with us if you want. I can make a pretty good earth tent-"

"_Bolin_...you can't just invite random girls for 'sleepovers'." sighed Mako in exasperation.

"Why not?"

"It looks weird."

"Nobody except you cares." snapped Keika, pushing her way past him rudely.

He gave her an extremely affronted look, but allowed her to come along anyways.

Mako and Bolin went into a crude stone building made of three slabs of rock and fell asleep almost immediately. But Keika sat outside in the cooling air and contemplated how she was going to make it out of this mess alive and in one piece. She was strong; she knew she was. All she needed to do was make sure to buddy up with the right people. And destroy the wrong ones.

Her eyes narrowed. She would make the Terras pay for turning her childhood into hell.

* * *

a/n: Okay, that was definitely not realistic behavior for a thirteen-year-old. Whatever.

Has anyone noticed that other than Lin, there weren't any girl Triad members or Police officers? I find that very sexist!

Keika should actually be spelled "Keaka" but I tried to spell it phonetically and it means "person of the shadows" in Hawaiian.

Nilak means "Snowflake" in a inuit language.

混蛋 means "bastard", but the literal character by character translation is "mixed egg." Isn't that so logical?

And right now, Keika is 13, Bolin is 14, Mako is 15, and Shady Shin is 21. There are Four Triads: the Agni Kais, the Red Monsoons, the Terras, and the Triple Threats, which are the only group that has all three elements.

Review!


	3. Chapter 3

a/n: Previously, Keika's mom just died and she joined the Triple Threats. This takes place about three months after.

This chapter may mention some disturbing stuff.

Oh ya, and nothing belongs to me.

* * *

It didn't take much to see that she was born a waterbending prodigy. Within three weeks of mediocre training from the Triple Threats, she could already beat Shady Shin in a spar most of the time. Not that he was much good; he didn't need to be that great a fighter, since he could sweet talk his way out of anything. Within the first month, she could beat half of all the waterbenders there. Within the second month, she could defeat people of other elements, and within the third month, she was singlehandedly facing three or four people of different elements at the same time. Waterbending came as naturally to her as breathing. In fact, it was breathing.

She could feel all the moisture in all surrounding spaces, minuscule droplets of water swirling in and out of her mouth riding on currents of air. She could feel it pulling at her from inside Yue Bay, every rivulet dripping down the damp tunnels under their hideout. It's flowing, expanding, and contracting nature was mere intuition for her. She reckoned smugly that she was probably one of the only ones who knew the true nature of water so well.

She became notorious now among the Triple Threats: the skilled, clever almost fourteen year old waterbender who was the only girl in the almost all the Triads. When she passed other members in the tunnels under their territory, they would cast her sidelong glances of hateful, grudging admiration and mistrust. Despite being extremely capable, she still wasn't accepted. She wasn't one of them. As Shady Shin said on that first fateful meeting, she would probably never be one of them.

But still, she had strong aspirations, the foremost of which was revenge on the Terras, who terrorized her community and took away the only member in her crappy, pathetic excuse for a family.

_Her mother._

Not that her mom was a proficient parent. Her mother was negligent, and dishonest, and had a career that Keika despised because it was so demeaning towards women. Sometimes, she forgot Keika was her child; sometimes, she forgot that she was supposed to love Keika. But it wasn't too bad. Keika had been hardened against it long ago. Losing her mother was surprisingly painless after her first tantrum; she simply had to cease thinking about the fact that she had no family, and transform it into anger instead. It was her staple, the fuel she burned to continue driving on. And she could produced it in enormous, copious abundance.

Sometimes, her anger was crazy, explosive, rabid rage. Sometimes, it was resigned resentment. And sometimes, it was cold, bitter, tenacious hatred, burning like anthracite coal: understated and smokeless, but emitting icy hot, whitish blue flames. Every time she thought about it, it would become more compressed, slower burning, until parts even began to harden into diamonds. Nothing existed, no desire for a family, no love. Nothing except cold, clear grit, pressed into crystallized determination.

_Well_...at least, that's what she tried to tell herself.

In reality, she was actually insecure, fragile, and full of uncontrollable rage. She hated herself for not being able to miss her mother, despite wanting so desperately to have a family. A somewhat proficient family.

But there was always that nagging voice in the back of her head telling her that she didn't deserve a family. She didn't deserve anything unless she fought for it tooth and nail, fifty billion times harder than anybody else. No matter how good she was, she never felt competent, and she despised how every person glared at her threateningly as she skulked through headquarters.

At least she could find solace with her friends Mako and Bolin.

Well, actually, only with Bolin, who was really more an ally, since she didn't trust him enough to be an close friend.

Mako was a whole other story. Mako didn't like her. Probably because she's using Bolin as an ally. But that was okay, because she didn't like Mako either. In fact, she was horribly envious of him. He got to cozy up with their Triad leader and get frickin' private lessons in lightbending and second-hand prestige and everyone's respect because he acted completely thuggish, despite being only fifteen. He had a brother left to admire him, and was good looking, and everyone was proud of him if he acted like an asshole.

And her? Everyone thought she was just a pathetic little girl who cheated her way to being a great waterbender. Even her physical appearance seemed to scream _"I'm an weird, ugly, little duckling."_

She looked awkward and androgynous with her ridiculous thick eyebrows, uncontrollable hair that was never clean, dark, dusky brown skin, overabundance of freckles, large nose, long dimples, and oversized, droopy eyes. She knew she was a mix of earth and water genes, and it felt like she inherited the most unflattering traits possible from each. The only good thing she could say about herself was being an aggressive waterbender, but women were almost never respected as good waterbenders. In fact, when she pointed out that Katara was one of the greatest waterbenders of all time, they laughed at her and told her how stupid she was, even though she was right. The sexism was especially bad because most of the people _(waterbenders at least)_ in the Triple Threats were from the Northern Water Tribe, where women weren't allowed to learn fighting at all. She lost track of how many times she's been told to just _"go and learn to heal."_

Which was actually good advice. When she began to feel bored with the crappy waterbending lessons, she would go and try to find Nilak the healer. He was old and cranky and not well respected among other Triad members, but he allowed her to watch as he healed and dissected human bodies, and pretty soon, she was able to pick up lots of knowledge about Qi points and anatomy. They never spoke, but words were unnecessary. Nilak genuinely recognized and respected her talent, but he never spoke up on her behalf, or defended himself, or revealed anything about who he was. He only healed and sorted out organs to sell and occasionally complained that the _"boys were being too rowdy."_

He didn't mind when _she_ was around though. Sometimes, he even allowed her to help him heal damaged organs so they were in tip top condition, and would fetch the highest price. As disgusting as Keika felt when she discovered that people actually sold body parts, she had to admit that it was a very lucrative business. Many healers and hospitals around the United Republic were willing to pay to buy them on the black market. And besides, it's not like they killed people just for their organs; they simply took dead bodies as spoils of successful turf wars. It was very draining to heal body parts once they were detached from a living human, since they were essentially 'dead', but the exhaustion was satisfying. It was oddly soothing to go through the repetitive motions of repairing, preserving, and labelling.

When she was not with Nilak or the brothers, she tried to run errands outside as much as possible since the environment at headquarters was a very oppressive. She looked innocuous enough that nobody suspected her of anything untoward. Who would expect a little girl to be a Triad member?

And so, she spent these first few months getting acquainted with Central and Downtown Republic City, where the Triple threats prefer to spend most of their time.

Before, she used to think that Dragon Flats was the best strategic location for home turf, but she found that Downtown was so much better. She's never really been here, since she mainly just worked odd jobs near the river next to Dragon Flats, but she recently discovered that there were so many more places to rob, and blackmail, and all sorts of hobos, swindlers, traffickers, and druggies to make deals with.

But alas, she was usually given very low level jobs, like picking up money or taking care of the youngest recruits (male, of course) or shopping. Jobs that were irritatingly domestic. She was extraordinarily annoyed with the higher ups to assign her these asinine errands. She was one of the most gifted waterbenders! She could beat the crap out of half a dozen of them at a time in a spar, even when they were thirsty for her blood! And she was willing to do the more dangerous tasks, like infiltrating the police or attacking other Triads. In fact, she _wanted_ to attack the Terra Triad.

She huffed indignantly as she sauntered back to headquarters.

Then, she realized that she didn't have to be back until after nightfall, so she figured that she might as well enjoy herself a little. She walked back up the street, loitering around the pet store, where a collection of colorful fish swam around in a fish tank adorned with lovely crystal pebbles.

Then, she noticed that there was a small tattoo parlor a few shops away from it.

_Huh, maybe I should get a tattoo..._

At least that might make her seem a bit tougher and more respectable around the Triple Threat boys. Usually, _they_ didn't even get tattoos until they were fifteen. Carefully, she pulled out a few yuans from her pocket. She would get nine yuans every week for her services, barely enough to keep herself fed. That wasn't too big an issue though. If she got hungry, she could always catch a few fish in City Park when the policemen weren't watching. She stood in front of the tattoo parlor, trying to think of a plausible excuse to _not_ get a tattoo, and she concluded that she wouldn't be able to talk herself out of it either way, so she just strutted inside.

The interior was dingy and dusty and screamed _'infection'_, but against her better judgement, she plopped down on a squeaky chair and flipped through the book of patterns as she waited for the tattoo artist.

One symbol seemed to call to her; it was very simple, just a dark blue circle with a single sliver of a crescent moon at the bottom right corner.

"See anything you're interested in?" asked a voice over her shoulder. Keika jumped.

"Uh, yeah." said Keika, pointing out to the crescent moon. "This one."

_"Interesting..."_ he murmured, looking at her contemplatively.

The tattooist was a scruffy old man, with a mane of white hair held back by a piece of rope. He was covered head to toe with fantastic patterns.

"Why's it interesting?" she asked.

"This used to be the mark of the Red Monsoons." he said wistfully, "Back in the days that they would actually bloodbend."

"Oh...what happened to them after?" she asked curiously, "Why did they stop? Were you ever a part of them?"

"I left when the Boss was caught." said the tattooist, "He was sentenced to life in prison. Apparently he escaped and promised he would retake the city, but he never returned."

"Huh..." said Keika before adding, "Do you think other gangs will dislike me if I use it?"

"Perhaps." He said, before looking at her suspiciously, "Why are you even here? You don't look old enough to get tatts."

"Erm...I have money to pay for it..." she said uncertainly.

"Hmm. Fine. It's not my place to ask questions if you can pay." He said easily as he prepared the inks and needles, "Doesn't matter anyways. Nobody even remembers the old Red Monsoons. Maybe you could bring it back to its glory days."

"You really think so?" asked Keika excitedly.

"Nope." said the tattooist, "You're too nice a girl."

Then, he stabbed her in the arm with a needle.

_"Shiiii...!"_ she shouted before she could stop herself, jumping in surprise.

The tattooist chuckled in amusement, "That was a pretty impressive reaction from a girl. Lots of the boys who come here cry their first time."

"Well girls are tougher than boys!" replied Keika indignantly, trying not to wince.

The tattoo artist simply chuckled again as he started to paint indigo ink over the swelling skin on her left upper arm.

After a while, the spot on her arm began to numb slightly. Finally, it was finished and the artist gave it a swift wipe with a damp cloth before pulling back.

"All done." he said, handing her a small mirror.

She held it up and examined the splotch of ink sewn into the greater portion of her left deltoid. It looked puffy and black, and pretty epic if she did say so herself.

"Hey, if you're interested, we also do piercings." said the tattooist, holding up a metal contraption that looked like a medieval torture device.

Keika looked at it, and actually contemplated getting a hoop in her ear, but then realized that, a) she doesn't have any more money, and b) she probably mutilated herself enough for one day.

"No thanks." she declined politely, " But I might return some other time."

"Alright. Goodbye, and come back soon. Business is awfully slow." said the old tattooist, who got up slowly and sauntered away, into the back room.

Keika stood up and pushed her way out of the curtain in the front. She squinted in the lightless street. It seemed like she was in that tattoo parlor for much longer than she intended. Night had already fallen.

"Hey! Hello!" called a voice from her right.

Keika turned around. "Hi Bolin." she said. Bolin was running towards her, with a furry red blob perched on his shoulder…

"Hey..." she said, squinting at the creature, "Did you get a-"

_"HOLY SPIRITS!"_ he yelped, skidding to a halt and pointing an accusing finger at her shoulder, "What is that?"

"Oh. I kinda got a tattoo." she said sheepishly.

Bolin gaped. And started to speak but ended up with his mouth still hung open in a comical "o". Then, he said in a small, childish voice, "Can I touch it?"

"Nope! It might get infected." she laughed, "What about that?" she asked, pointing to the red lemur thing on his shoulder.

"He's a fire ferret! I rescued him from a pet shop a few minutes ago" said Bolin proudly, "I named him Pabu."

"Wait, you _'rescued'_ it? How do you rescue an animal from a petshop?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, "You stole it, didn't you."

"It a HIM, not an IT." said Bolin indignantly, "And no, I didn't _steal_ him. I was _saving_ hi-"

"BO!" called a voice from over his shoulder. Keika glance over and saw Mako hurrying towards them.

"Bolin, what are you doing? We gotta get to the arena before the match starts!" scolded Mako, before noticing that she was there as well. His voice cooled down significantly as he said. "Oh. Hello Keika."

"Hi. Mako." replied Keika in an equally cool voice, "So you two get to see the match tonight, huh?"

This probending match would be a good one. The Triple Threats had bribed Toza, star of the Boar-Q-Pines, to lose purposely. That way, they could collect bets from uninformed citizens and make bucketloads of money.

"Yeah," said Bolin, "Boss and Shady Shin got us a really good view of the stage. And you should come too..." he said with a hopeful look at Mako, "Mako, you can get Shady Shin to let her in, right? He respects you...kinda..."

"No. We'll probably already be in trouble since you're making us late!" said Mako irritably while grabbing onto Bolin's sleeve.

"But-"

"Hey, it's okay." said Keika, with a mild glare at Mako that expressed that it really wasn't okay, whatever _'it'_ was, "I'll sneak in through the roof or something."

"Are you sure?" asked Bolin.

"Yeah, let's just go. Wouldn't wanna miss our handiwork, right?" she said cheerfully. She'd bet all her money on the Boar-Q-Pines losing tonight. Hopefully, she'd even be able to get herself a pair of shoes that weren't four sizes too small!

Both of the boys just gave her somewhat lukewarm expressions. Bolin especially looked a bit concerned.

But she decided not to dwell on it as they headed towards the arena.

* * *

After twenty minutes of sneaking and some very close calls with the guards, Keika finally found the box where some of the Triple Threats were staying. She skulked in through the door and plopped down next to Bolin before eyeing the scoreboard. To her great displeasure, they were already on the third round.

"Damnit! I missed like, all of it!" she hissed.

This prompted Shady Shin to whip his head around and stare at the three of them incredulously.

"That language is not suitable for a liddle lady." he smirked, "And how'd you git in here anyways?"

"Through the front door." she replied innocuously.

"Sure, kid." he said, rolling his eye before facing forwards.

Meanwhile, Shiro Shinobi announced that Toza, the old, scruffy, white haired legend of the Boar-Q-Pines, was _"singlehandedly costing his team the match!"_

The old probender was letting himself be smashed around relentlessly, even to the point of 'accidentally' jolting his teammates a zone back.

"All those bets you boys collected are about to wind up in our pockets." grinned Shady Shin victoriously as the Boar-Q-Pine's firebender was knocked into the pool. But Keika could see that Mako and Bolin looked a little downcast about it for some reason.

"Hey, what's wrong?" she asked them with her head tilted to the side, "Be happy! We're gonna get lots of cash after this."

But the two of them were watching Toza, who was teetering precariously over the edge of the third zone, one wobble away from toppling into the pool.

Impatiently, Shin leapt out of his seat and leaned out of their box, bellowing out, "Go down, ya bum!"

But Toza managed to heave himself back up, landing heavily on his knees. He looked around, uncertain and dejected, and Keika wondered if he was having second thoughts about allowing the Triple threats to bribe him.

Suddenly, the buzzer rang out and he stood tall again, with a determined scowl painted across his face. He stomped viciously on the ground, prompting two earth disks to hover in the air for a moment before he smashed them across the court, sending the other team toppling backwards, one after the other. Distantly, Shiro Shinobi announced that _"he's blasting away! Just like the championship season ten years ago!"_ Shinobi's magnified voice was punctured by fire and water blasts coming from the ring, _"the legend's still got it!"_ Then, Toza sent another fast volley of earth disks at the opposing team, and they toppled into the water. The crowds went wild as Shiro Shinobi announced, _**"IT'S A KNOCKOUT!"**_

"_Yes!_ He listened to me, Mako!" cheered Bolin, jumping up and down like a little child, "I told him not to throw the fight and he listened!"

"You _WHAT!?_" roared Shin, glaring at the boys venomously. Mako facepalmed. Keika was sitting stock still in dread. She'd bet all of her savings, and now she was completely broke since Bolin _(who was supposed to be her friend/ally!)_ decided to act all virtuous and encourage stupid Toza to win his stupid game.

"Oh, _well_, you know...I'm sure there are other factors." Bolin blurted out sheepishly, twiddling his fingers. Mako grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and yanked him onto his feet before the two of them bolted down the hallway, with a furious Shin hot on their heels.

Keika leapt up and dashed after them. She wanted to make sure Shady Shin didn't beat them up too badly...and she wanted to give each of them a hard smack in the back of the head herself. Didn't those two shitheads know that their choice could actually cost people!?

She heard a rumble coming from a darkened hallway on her left, as well as clinking metal and a few muttered curses. Then, she heard a series of loud bangs, followed by water and fire blasts. She anxiously followed her ears, hoping the Mako and Bolin weren't getting beaten up too badly. She got to an empty training room just in time to see Shady Shin's cronies being smacked to the side by two juts of earth.

Simultaneously, all eyes turned to the corner of the room, where Toza had appeared out of nowhere.

Keika hurried over to Shin as Mako and Bolin ducked behind Toza, getting ready for a faceoff. The air was charged with anger, and Shady Shin was about to draw water when...

_BAM!_

Lightning Bolt Zolt slammed his fist into the wall, releasing a small _zing!_ of electricity that made her hair stand on end.

"Alright! Enough, _enough!_" snapped the Boss irritably, turning his glare on Shin, "You look ridiculous. Fighting with kids...it's not dignified!" he reprimanded. Shin had the decency to look chagrined.

"And _you!_" barked Zolt, glaring at Toza accusingly, "What gives? You cost me a lot of money just now! I thought you were an honorable man!"

Keika could barely hold back a snicker. Their Boss had a ridiculously strong sense of honor for someone who stole, bribed, and blackmailed on a daily basis.

_Must be the firebender genes..._

"I _am_ an honorable man." replied Toza, snapping her out of her thoughts, "I just needed someone to remind me." Then, he put a hand on Bolin's shoulder.

Bolin, to Keika's irritation, was looking ridiculously pleased with himself.

"Here's your money back." scowled Toza, tossing a bundle of yuans at the three of them, before jerking his thumb in the direction of the door, "Now get out of my gym."

Keika managed to catch the bundle of cash, but Zolt snatched it out of her hands before she had the opportunity to slip a few in her pocket. She pouted at the ground.

"Let's go, boys." growled Shady Shin venomously as he turned to leave, "We're gonna talk about this, when we get back to the hideout."

"Wait!" called Toza earnestly as Mako and Bolin nervously began to follow Shin, "You guys have got some real bending skills! With a little training, I think you could go pro!"

Mako glanced at him incredulously.

"I can teach you everything I know." continued Toza, causing Bolin to grin widely between him and Mako with hope written all over his face.

This only prompted Shady Shin to give a short, derisive laugh, "Sorry _bum_, but at least one of these kids is too smart to end up like you." he said, pointing a finger, "Right, Mako?"

"I could find you a place to stay right here in the arena." said Toza insistently, "Who knows? You could be champs! At least it's a chance at an honest living."

"_Can we,_ Mako? Mako, can we _pleeeaaase?_" pleaded Bolin, while Mako scratched the back of his head uncertainly.

"Don't go soft on me, Mako. Remember, it's up to you to take of your little brother." said Shady Shin winningly, "Use your head. Make the smart play."

Mako furrowed his brow and stared at the ground while Bolin watched him anxiously. Almost half a minute passed before he looked up and said, "Sorry, Shady. But you're right, I do have to take care of my brother, and I think this is what's best for him."

"YES! _Yesyesyesyes!_ Mako, you are the best!" cried Bolin exuberantly, pumping his fists in the air. Then, he glanced over and looked at Keika, who had a black glower on her face.

"_Erm_...can Keika come too?" he asked, almost apologetically.

She only huffed and looked away, refusing to participate in the conversation.

Toza gave her a somewhat lukewarm look and said, "Well...I guess we could use some help cleaning and maintaining the gym-"

"I'm a fucking fantastic waterbender, old man!" she snapped angrily, "I should be allowed on a team!"

Toza blinked at her, looking very affronted, and she berated herself for having a momentary lapse in judgment. But her stubborn pride would not allow her to apologize, so she kind of just shrank back a little, fiddling with her fingers and looking at the ground with a hint of shame. The room was silent as everyone stared at her.

_Oh screw my pride._

"Sorry. I don't usually say those things." she muttered at her feet. And it was true; she usually only _thought_ offensive things. But today, she'd felt much more spiteful and restless, especially as it neared night time.

"Uh...yeah! She really doesn't." said Bolin to Toza quickly, before turning back to her, "It would be great if you could come, I mean, the three of us would make a perfect team, with you being a waterbender and Mako being a firebender and-"

"Let the kid pick on her own, brat." snapped Shady Shin, silencing Bolin immediately before turning to her, "And you, little girl? If you leave us, everything that was ever said about you not being good enough for a Triad? Well, that would all be true, wouldn't it?"

She picked at her nails. Shady Shin was just baiting her, but at this point, she did not really care. As much as she was ashamed to admit it, she actually really liked life with the Triads. There was something thrilling about bending the rules and fleeing through the streets like vicious animals. She could not content herself with a career of playing a sport for the public to gawk at. She wanted to be more powerful, more dangerous, and she felt the inexplicable, illogical urged to prove herself, even if it was only to a group of criminals. Plus, there was the fact that she didn't think the boys could make it anywhere. Currently, their bending skills were only mediocre in comparison to hers, and she was making this choice for herself.

Her mean, mistrustful, egocentric self.

"I...I'm still with the Triple Threats." she said, raising her chin defiantly.

Everyone stared at her incredulously, and she narrowed her eyes.

"See, this here is the smart choice." said Shady Shin to Mako and Bolin while putting a hand on her shoulder, right over the new tattoo. She shook it off with a hiss of discomfort and glared at him.

"Don't start agreeing with me now that it's convenient, you weaslesnake." she grumbled.

Shady Shin smacked her over the back of the head, muttering _"stupid brat"_ before he turned back to Mako and Bolin. "You sure you wanna do this?" he said with narrowed eyes, "You guys have a pretty low chance of makin' it tot he big leagues."

"I...yes." said Mako with conviction. Lightning Bolt Zolt gave him a look of utmost disappointment before he turned to leave. Shady Shin merely shrugged.

"Suit yourself..." he said casually, "But who knows? Maybe we can fix a fight together some time."

Then he left and Keika hurried to catch up.

Before she exited the room, she turned back and gave the two boys a glance a somewhat rueful glance. She wasn't sorry that she chose the Triads over them, but she was sorry that they chose probending over Triad life. Now she would be very much alone.

Bolin was looking dejected, and Mako was glaring at her. His orange eyes seemed to say: _I knew you were rotten to the core._

She was tempted to roll her eyes at him, but instead, but gave Bolin a tiny smile, and Mako a tiny scowl before turning her back. She wondered if she would ever regret her choice.

* * *

The moment she followed Shady Shin and Boss outside, she knew something was wrong.

She felt so, _so_ dizzy, but insanely invigorated at the same time. Instinctively, she shut her eyes and tilted her head backwards, mouth hanging open as her heart sped up painfully and her lungs gasped for air. Even with her eyes shut, she was flooded with the relentless sensation of water from all sides.

Her eyes snapped open, and light from the full moon reflected off her pale, stormy blue eyes.

_Oh, so it's the full moon._

Before, she had experience the effects of the full moon on waterbending, but never had they been so _intense_. This time around, it was a heady feeling of power and energy, a choking feeling of awareness of every drop of water within a half kilometer radius...all of the liquids..._even her own blood._

She felt like the blood vessels were popping out of her body. She felt like every twitch of her muscle sent a tiny, subtle shift in all the moisture of her muscles. Each of her organs were nothing more than warm containers of water. This was novel; it was the first time she'd ever felt her own blood, and it was _terrifying_.

The sensations were so fierce that she dropped to the ground and pressed her watery palms into her watery eyes. It didn't help. She could still feel it, an unnerving series of dull thuds, unsynchronized pulsations of waterlogged bodies, bundles of liquid gushing through other people, washing her senses in a wave of red. Although her eyes were completely closed, she could still see everything glowing against the blackness, overwhelming grey swirls of vapor on air, blue ripples of saltwater in Yue Bay, green of the moisture seeping through the capillaries of grass and trees, and crimson of the blood and plasma in human bodies. One of the red shapes was moving towards her, long cracks of vessels moving up and down.

She wrenched open her eyes in panic, hoping to be able to see normally. No such luck. She was aware that Shady Shin was approaching her, but when she looked at him, all she could see was an unnerving pattern of red branches, crisscrossing into the approximate shape of a human body.

_Come on...come on...snap out of it..._

She concentrated on suppressing the feeling of blood, to no avail. It was still calling from within Shin's body, within Lightning Bolt Zolt, within all the throngs of live, beating hearts: in people exiting the arena, and elephant mice scuttling through the garbage, and sparrowkeets settling into their nests. So much tempting blood, how easy and alluring it is to just feel the warm, wet, pulsating-

_"Hey! HEY! What's your problem..."_

And then a smaller bundle of blood was approaching, like it was about to slap her across the face...

And then her hand flew out.

And she opened her eyes.

Shady Shin was starting to look a bit more normal now, except that he was kneeling on the ground in front of her, shaking with a mixture of strain and terror. She was still aware of all of his vessels, but now that she had a grip on his blood, she felt herself calm down a bit. The feeling of hot blood was placating, like warm milk. But simultaneously, she was thrilled by the sensation. It felt pleasurable, in a very depraved way, to be able to have complete power over an entire person's body, to know that every bone, every soaked flesh and organ was under her control. It was..._exhilarating_.

_"What..what are you...-_OW!_"_ gasped Shady Shin.

Suddenly, she felt a disturbance in the water on her right, like it was charged with something. But before she could react, she felt a shock of electricity in her lower back. For a moment, her vision turned white and all of her muscles locked up. But it wasn't really painful; it was more like being jolted to a sudden halt after traveling at a hundred miles per hour. Her entire head buzzed, and the colors of the different variously energized forms of water seemed to blur and fade slightly. She lost her grip on Shin, but still had a bit trouble seeing the world as a typical human would. It was still too deeply ingrained with the energies of water, but they were blending together like a rainbow; she could not see with human vision, but the energy based vision was completely disoriented from the lightning zap.

_So in other words, I'm screwed._

It was like she was partially blind. She sat heavily on the ground, feeling very slow and unbalanced.

Suddenly, there was a shout from her right; it sounded like Zolt! Then another buzz of electricity, an explosion, and a series of very light footsteps. Zolt gave another growl of anger, followed by the roaring sound of fire.

Then, there was a yelp of pain from someone she didn't recognize, followed by a series of dull thuds that signified the used of fists. Abruptly, the sound on roaring fire stopped.

_"Seriously," _muttered Shady Shin,_ "They gotta attack now of all times?"_

Then a series of jabs hit her sides and the energy of water decreased dramatically as her limbs turned to rubber. The world now looked normal, drab, and average again. She tried to bend, and it didn't work! In panic she whipped her head back and forth. Vaguely, she saw four pairs of glowing of green goggles, underneath a red circle forehead.

_The Equalists..._

But they were supposed to be a small, peaceful organization! How did they get so they could fight and block the bending of people as powerful as their Boss?

Suddenly, she felt herself get tugged onto her feet by the back of her shirt, and heard Shady Shin call, "C'mon Boss, we need to git movin'!"

They fled through the street, with Keika allowing herself to be dragged along numbly. Her feet stumbled across the pavement and she heard a low grunt signifying that Lightning Bolt Zolt was not far behind. There was the rumbling of a Satomobile, then a splash of water and a horrible screech of tires. Then, she heard a victorious hiss from Shady Shin before they were swallowed up by earth.

A few voices of fellow triad members called, and there was a series of heavy footsteps rushing over to them.

"What happened?" snapped Nilak the healer. Keika felt his energy connect to her through his blob of healing water, "Why has she been electrocuted?"

Zolt had the decency to look somewhat repentant.

"This little harlot did something wid' her hands, and I couldn't move!" said Shin indignantly, "So Zolt gave her a liddle zap."

Some of the surrounding Triple Threats exchanged speculative looks, which she met with defiance. She wasn't quite sure what happened herself, but she remembered that old guy in the tattoo parlor saying something about the Red Monsoons and bloodbending. Was that what the feeling was? She glanced at her tattoo...was that what gave her the powers? It was a real mystery. But she knew whatever happened, nothing would be the same anymore. After feeling that rush of power, she knew that she could never allowed herself to be helpless again. If she had this power, then she would learn how to master it and become the most powerful and respected bender in the city.

_But bloodbending is illegal._

She narrowed her eyes. So were the Triads. So was blackmail, and smuggling, and stealing. But it was the livelihood of the so many benders in this city to prey off of other's weakness. It was a cruel world where only the strongest could achieve success and stability and happiness. If they were strong enough to cheat the law, what was stopping them?

There was a saying that it's not possible to buy happiness, family, or love, whether it's with money, or power, or something else. That happiness only came with virtue and hard work. But that wasn't true. The most well endowed people can get whatever they want through any means they had.

Keika swore to herself to become one of those people. Pathetic as it was, she still had the underlying hope of being able to find pride, respect, and most of all, a place to belong. A family. But for now, she would suppress those desires in favor of "self improvement." Before she could pursue what she wanted, she had to work her butt off at being stronger.

She smiled slightly to herself. That was okay. Now, her life had found new direction.

* * *

a/n: That bloodbending section was so hard to write. It felt like I was describing a vampire having sex.

Also, this takes place during the time of Republic City Hustle part 3!

Keika came out a lot more screwed up than I intended. Nilak is a male healer, and he is a male because a normal female healer would not condone triad activities. btw, sorry if you were disturbed by the organ thing. It actually does happen in real life.

Also, much of this stuff is my own interpretation of real life gangs, human nature, and how human nature would tie in with elemental bending.

Review!


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